Warden who ticketed PM’s son goes AWOL

Mushtaq didn’t report for duty on weekend, not answering phone, has not spoken to friends since Friday.

LAHORE: A traffic police warden who ticketed the prime minister’s son’s car has not returned to work or spoken to friends since Friday, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Warden Ahsan Mushtaq, who issued a challan on the driver’s licence of Musa Gilani for having a car with tinted windows, did not report for duty on Saturday or Sunday or answer his mobile phone during that period, according to his colleagues in the traffic police. Colleagues of Mushtaq said he had disappeared after hearing that senior police officials had issued directions for him to go to the prime minister’s house and apologise to Musa Gilani for issuing him the ticket.

They said after he had issued the ticket to Gilani on Friday at around 11am, he switched off his mobile phone and went for Friday prayers. Meanwhile, several announcements were made on the traffic police wireless for him to report to high-ups. When he later switched on his phone, his colleagues told him that the city’s chief traffic officer (CTO) had issued an order for him to apologise to the PM’s son. He has not been heard from since, they said.

Mushtaq told his colleagues that he issued Gilani the Rs300 ticket in person, though senior officials later told the media that only the driver had been in the car. On Saturday, an employee of the Gilani family paid the fine and collected the expired licence, which was necessary for its renewal, traffic police officials said. One of Mushtaq’s colleagues went to his room in Lahore to visit but he was not there. “He has probably gone back to his native village in Pattoki. His phone is still switched off,” he said.

His colleagues said Mushtaq was honest and dutiful and never compromised on his principles. “He was very proud that he had issued a ticket to the prime minister’s son,” said one of them.

SP Imtiazur Rehman denied that the warden had been told to issue such an apology. He also denied that Mushtaq had been missing from work, even though the warden has been listed as absent on Saturday and Sunday in the official record. The SP admitted that the warden had been concerned about his fate, but that he had reassured him that he was safe. He said that Gilani actually hadn’t been present in the car when it was pulled over and that Gilani’s driver had been carrying his licence. He said he had asked Mushtaq why he had issued the challan on Gilani’s licence when Gilani wasn’t in the car.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2010.